Airbnb to introduce automated caps in Central Paris to promote responsible and sustainable home sharing

Airbnb to help prevent entire homes being shared beyond 120 nights a year in Central Paris, following the successful implementation of similar measures in London and Amsterdam.

Airbnb has today announced it will automatically limit entire home listings in Paris’ central districts from being shared for more than 120 nights a year, unless hosts confirm that they have the required permission to share their space more frequently.

The new measure will be introduced in January 2018 in central districts (75001, 75002, 75003, 75004) and follows the successful implementation of similar measures in London and Amsterdam, where the number of entire homes shared beyond local limits have reduced by two thirds and almost three quarters respectively.

A ‘nights hosted’ counter will also be added to host profiles to more easily track the number of nights they share their homes.

Emmanuel Marill, General Manager for Airbnb in France, said:

“Paris is the number one city in the world for Airbnb and we want to make sure our community grows responsibly and sustainably. While experts across the world agree that Airbnb has no significant impact on the housing market, we want to do our bit to address historic housing concerns in central Paris and help make this city a better place for everyone. We know reasonable automated caps are effective, target bad actors and are free for everyone, and we hope other platforms will follow and introduce similar measures to promote responsible and sustainable travel in Paris.”

As studies show, housing concerns have been higher for decades in arrondissements 1, 2, 3, 4 – long before Airbnb existed – which have been historically subject to intense touristic and commercial pressure. The districts are home to almost 8,000 hotel rooms and have a large presence of commercial units comprised of stores, businesses and the like, with a rate of 80 businesses for every 1000 inhabitants – almost four times the Paris average. Since the early 2000s, the proportion of local empty housing units has been 10 percent higher than in the rest of Paris, and the majority (60 percent) of local housing units are small one or two room apartments that are often unsuitable for families to live in.

While Airbnb didn’t cause these problems, we know arrondissements 1 to 4 are particularly popular with all guests in Paris, including those using the Airbnb platform. We want to be sympathetic to local concerns and do our bit to help ensure our community keeps growing sustainably and homes are shared in the best interests of everyone in Paris.

The vast majority of Parisian Airbnb hosts (93 percent) have only one listing. The typical host on Airbnb earns €2,300 by sharing their space for 33 nights a year. Last year the Airbnb community boosted the Paris economy by €1.7B and helped support 30,600 jobs in France. Since October 2015, Airbnb collected €12M tourist tax for the city of Paris, on behalf of the local host community.

“Airbnb allows regular people to use their homes – typically their greatest expense – to boost their income and support their families,” said Emmanuel Marill. “It also makes Airbnb different to companies that take large sums of money out of the places they do business.